Coetzee, the Cape and the Colonial Archive: Exploring Dusklands via Summertime

Easton, Kai

Abstract

Since Coetzee's emigration in 2002, his writing post-Disgrace has shown only traces of the Cape. With Summertime we come full circle: we are back in the Cape, with a fictionalized version of the author at the time of the writing of his first novel, Dusklands (1974). The paper looks at the ways in which we might read Dusklands via Summertime - and raises questions about auto/biography, the colonial archive, and the significance of the Cape in Coetzee's own archives.

*The paper included a visual element also: a draft video of a journey to Namaqualand undertaken in the week before the seminar - specifically to the Orange River in the footsteps of Coetzee's character in The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee and Simon van der Stel before him

Citation

Easton, K. (2011, August). Coetzee, the Cape and the Colonial Archive: Exploring Dusklands via Summertime. Paper presented at Seminar, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Seminar, Centre for Humanities Research
• Start Date: Aug 11, 2011
• End Date: Aug 11, 2011
• Deposit Date: Dec 3, 2015
• Keywords: J. M. Coetzee, colonial archive, Summertime, Dusklands, Cape, Orange River
• Related Public URLs: http://www.coetzeecollective.net/events.html
• Additional Information: Event Type : Other